Kat Yelle and Mariah Byard, who have both been on Ohio’s worst and best seasons, reflect on their journey as Bobcats.
{{tncms-asset app="editorial" id="0a28a91e-cb4f-11e4-bc16-43e02584969d"}}
CLEVELAND — Walking toward Ohio’s bench, redshirt junior guard Kat Yelle — wearing a crisp, white hat with the title “Mid-American Conference Champions” on it — glanced to her right and caught a glimpse of senior Mariah Byard.
The duo gave each other a quick smile before Byard, a senior from Mannington, West Virginia, embraced her point guard, wrapping her arms tightly around Yelle’s neck.
They’ve been through a lot during their four years with the Bobcats.
“It’s just priceless to win, it means so much to me. I’m still in shock right now,” Yelle said. “I’m just on cloud nine along with the rest of the team.”
Yelle, the Geneva, Illinois, native, had multiple setbacks regarding her health before the year.
During her freshman year in a game against the Oklahoma Sooners, Yelle tore her anterior-cruciate ligament and the meniscus in her right knee after colliding with an opposing player, according to a previous Post article.
In her sophomore season, she tore her right meniscus for a second and third time during two separate practices — receiving a medical redshirt from the NCAA to save a year of eligibility.
Months of rehabilitation and a full season later, Yelle suffered a minor eye injury in the Bobcat’s season final win over Miami this season, sitting out for almost the entirety of the second half.
Against Eastern Michigan Saturday, one would almost never notice the slight limp in her right leg when she drove the lane against Eastern Michigan’s forwards, who towered over her 5-foot-7 stature.
“All the rehab I had to do and all the stuff that came with my three surgeries, it finally paid off,” Yelle said. “I couldn’t ask for a more rewarding feeling than having won the MAC Tournament along with being regular season champs.
“It makes it’s all worth it.”
{{tncms-asset app="editorial" id="50748b0c-cb79-11e4-ac1a-d7b2b3299c00"}}
For Byard, who is known for being reserved and calm, it has been years of shooting the basketball that is almost accumulated to nothing leading up to this season — say for a few 3-point shooting records.
In the previous two seasons, with an influx of new players and coaches walking in and out of the program, and Yelle sidelined, Byard was involved in some of the program’s worst teams. During her sophomore and junior year, the Bobcats went 6-23 and 9-21, respectively.
Last year, coach Bob Boldon’s inaugural season, Byard broke her hand and only played 18 games for Ohio.
“(Being on the best team in program history) makes the best seem even better,” Byard said. “I thought that we were going to be here at the beginning of this year.”
But as confetti hit the floor in the Quicken Loans Arena Saturday following Ohio’s 60-44 win over Eastern Michigan to win a MAC Tournament, those memories of physical pain and losing were wiped clean.
After four years of adversity, the two are finally going dancing.
@Lukeoroark
Lr514812@ohio.edu
